Catholic-run homeless shelter: 'Put it in another neighborhood'

Plans for center at Eighth & Indiana upsets neighbors

Feb. 21, 2014

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Dick Year voices concern about the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls' plans to buy a warehouse downtown and convert it into a center for the homeless during a public meeting Thursday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sioux Falls. 'There's not a landowner down here that hasn't put money into their property, that doesn't have a sign on our door that says 'No public restroom,' and we're tired of it,' area resident Dick Year says.

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Whittier neighborhood residents packed the gym Thursday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church to say that another homeless shelter in the area would not be welcome.

The crowd was almost unanimous in its disapproval of the plan by the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls to convert an empty warehouse near Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue into a shelter.

“As a community, we’re struggling, and I feel like we’re asking the city for help, but it seems like all they’re saying is, ‘Here’s more,’ ” Krista Baartman said. “We can’t handle any more. We’re good people, but there’s only so much we can do.”

The church held the meeting two weeks before the project goes before city planners, who will be asked to approve a conditional-use permit for the shelter at 101 N. Indiana Ave. — a block south of The Banquet, a feeding ministry. The Catholic Diocese’s shelter would take over as an overnight shelter for the Salvation Army gym in the winter and summer months. It also would allow the Good Shepherd Center to move out of downtown.

Baartman noted the shelter would be a few blocks south of Whittier Middle School.

“Put it in another neighborhood. That’s all we’re asking,” she said.

The existing homeless shelters in Sioux Falls have not fully met the need, diocese chancellor Matt Althoff said. The Salvation Army’s warming house, for example, closes in the morning and leaves many people with no place to go until the other shelters open, he said.

“One of the things we hope is that this would give them a place to go,” Althoff said.

The church’s ultimate goal is to provide the city’s homeless a place to get essential services, as well as a place to stay when other shelters are closed. But that sounds like trouble to many home and business owners in the neighborhood.

“There’s not a landowner down here that hasn’t put money into their property, that doesn’t have a sign on our door that says ‘No public restroom,’ and we’re tired of it,” said area resident Dick Year.

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Scott Thorson, owner of the Welcome Mat Laundry, said he calls the police often because drunken homeless people have harassed his customers or passed out inside his business.

“Last Wednesday, I had to call police three times in three hours,” he said. “That’s the intensity of what’s going on in the neighborhood.”

Thorson and his neighbors blame the number of agencies in the area that serve the needy and homeless. They said homeless people have been attracted to the area and, in turn, some of them have caused damage and scared or intimidated customers. In some cases, residents have been chased out of the area.

“We’ve vowed that we’re not going to spend another winter in the neighborhood,” Shelly Sorensen said.

Althoff said he’d heard similar stories but that the shelter was intended to help ease the crime problems in the area by giving homeless people a place to go that isn’t someone else’s doorstep.

“To have concerns, frankly, I would wonder if you didn’t,” Althoff said.

A supporter of the project, city-county homeless board coordinator Stacy Tieszen, said the goal is to “make sure people are getting back on their feet. It isn’t about keeping them there, exploiting the system.”

Year wasn’t satisfied with their explanations.

“Your ideas are all grand, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I have no problem helping children, but there are a certain number of these people who will never be employable.”

The next public meeting will be held during the city planning commission meeting at 6 p.m. March 5 at Carnegie Town Hall.

Correction: The original version incorrectly stated the location of the proposed shelter. It will be a block south of The Banquet.